Mt Whitney Zone Forums Active Threads

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOB

Miles from nowhere
Guess I'll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there
Look up at the mountain, mmm
I have to climb
Oh yeah, to reach there
Lord, my body has been a good friend
But I won't need it when I reach the end

Miles from nowhere
I guess I'll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there
I creep through the valleys
And I grope through the woods
'Cause I know when I find it, my honey

It's gonna make me feel good
I love everything
So don't it make you feel sad
'Cause I'll drink to you, my baby
I'll think to that, yes, I'll think to that

Miles from nowhere
Not a soul in sight
Oh yeah, but it's alright
I have my freedom
I can make my own rules
Oh yes, the ones that I choose

Lord, my body has been a good friend
But I won't need it when I reach the end

I love everything
So don't it make you feel sad
'Cause I'll drink to you, my baby
I'll sing to that, yes, I'll think to that
Oh, I'll think to that

Miles from nowhere
Guess I'll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Cat Stevens
Miles From Nowhere lyrics © Salafa Limited, Salafa Ltd

Dog scofflaw here. Assuming the dogs are always leashed on the trails and they are not disease carriers, reasons against:

(1) Dog haters. You are ruining their wilderness experience with your stupid pet. Kind of ironic that, if they were alive today, "Dog Narcs" would swarm John Muir and his dog buddy Stickeen on his own damn trail! Also, early humans had dogs so I guess the "wilderness experience" is pre-human evolution.

(2) "Predator Scent" on the trail (a very small percent of the wilderness) dissuades criters from showing up on the trail to give you "high fives" on your epic hikes, thus reducing the wilderness experience. Then there is this "camera trap" study "https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/10/dog-human-effects-wildlife/": "“The bottom line of our work is that we have a ton of dogs using our parks, but most stay on-trail and don’t harass wildlife much".

My view:
Americans are FAT, American's dogs are FAT. Americans should be enticed to do exercise via "Exciting Big Walkies" with their dogs which is "killing two birds with one stone". It is much harder to con human friends into "going after work to do a 10,000 foot vertical mountain climb starting at midnight until our bodies feel like pain filled jelly and you are hallucinating from exhaustion and lack of sleep". Friend: "Nah, I'm good." Your dog:"LETS GO NOW!". So I am on the side of encouraging people's exercise vs weakly researched "environmental extremism".

This is my first year climbing Mt. Whitney and I have been lucky enough to summit three times in 2022. A lot of this has been with the help of @bobpickering who has helped guide me from hiking and trail running to actual mountaineering. I climbed Whitney solo in February on the trail (if you can call it a trail in the winter), in April on the Mountaineers Route with Bob, and I had a permit for Nov 1 that I changed to the 31st due to this weather system. I' am extremely thankful to have had the opportunity to be up there so much this year.

There isn't a ton to report because of this new weather system coming in today, but at least it can give a base line of what the trail was looking like before the system.

Overall it was wide open; no real snow anywhere on the trail except extremely small spots up near the cables and switchbacks. But it was very very minimal and did not affect hiking. I saw about 12 people going up and was told that the night before three people got stuck in the shelter due to summiting too late. As I was coming down a chopper flew over my head towards the summit also, hopefully it was nothing. As I write this, there are people going up today that were camping when I came down. Hopefully they checked the weather because its about to change up there.

This was the first time I climbed Whitney where I could see the actual trail so it was an interesting experience. The day started off in the 30's, but up higher the wind made the temps drop a good bit. But the sun was high in the sky and kept everything where it should be. Overall another good day in the Whitney Zone.

Edit: Last pic: supposedly a company laser engraved a new Whitney summit sign.

Mountain Forecast calls for snow showers Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The National Weather Service is predicting up to a total of 2" of snow for the Portal over those days. Temps in the teens and 20's at Whitney Portal elevation, but getting into the 40's on Friday. We're expecting 3-9 inches around the Tahoe basin, but it sounds like less for the Whitney area. Seems unlikely that chains would be needed, but bringing them wouldn't be a terrible idea. And I'd say chances of the road closing this week are close to zero.